{{short description|Journalist, radio broadcaster, human rights activist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}} {{Use British English|date=March 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Apollonia Mathia | image = | caption = | birth_date = | birth_place = | death_date = 18 March 2011 | death_place = Juba | education = | occupation = Journalist | years_active = | notable_works = Founder, AMWISS, UJOSS | title = | spouse = | children = | relatives = | family = | birth_name = Apollonia Adong Mathia | other_names = | partner = | credits = | URL = }} '''Apollonia Mathia''' (died 18 March 2011) was a South Sudanese journalist and social activist. Mathia was one of the founders of the Association for Media Women in South Sudan (AMWISS) as well as Union of Journalists of Southern Sudan (UJOSS).
== Background and education == Mathia was born in the 1950s.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Oduha |first=Joseph |date=19 March 2011 |title=Leading woman journalist dies in road accident |pages=3–4 |work=The Pioneer |url=https://blogs.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/africacan/the_pioneer_issue_11_juba.pdf |access-date=21 March 2022}}</ref> She spent her childhood in northern Uganda before relocating to Juba.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=30 April 2021 |title=Apollonia Mathia: A rock of Sudanese journalism |url=http://www.thejournalist.org.za/spotlight/apollonia-mathia-a-rock-of-sudanese-journalism-2/ |access-date=2022-03-21 |website=The Journalist}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=30 March 2011 |title=Remembering South Sudan's pioneer female reporter |url=https://cpj.org/2011/03/remembering-south-sudans-pioneer-female-reporter/ |access-date=2022-03-22 |website=Committee to Protect Journalists |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Career == Before she joined the Ministry of Finance as a secretary in 1978, Mathia worked as an Information Manager at the Catholic Church.<ref name=":0" /> She later quit to join the Juba Post where she was the only female editor and Managing editor.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Okello |first=Rosemary |date=May 2011 |title=Celebrating the life of Apollonia Mathias : GMMP national coordinator and the first femalejournalist in South Sudan |pages=15–16 |work=Media & Gender Monitor |url=https://new.waccglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/wacc-global/Images/Galleries/RESOURCES/e-pubs/MGM/MGM-PDFS/mgm22.pdf |access-date=21 March 2022}}</ref> She left the Juba Post in 2008 and joined the BBC Monitoring Service as their correspondent in South Sudan.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" />
Mathia worked at a number of jobs and helped found the Union of Journalists of Southern Sudan (UJOSS). She also worked as a consultant at South Sudan's World Bank Micro-finance investment department.<ref>{{Cite web |date=4 April 2011 |title=South Sudan's veteran female journalist passes on |url=https://www.media-diversity.org/south-sudans-veteran-female-journalist-passes-on/ |access-date=2022-03-22 |website=Media Diversity Institute |language=en-GB}}</ref>
At the time of her death in 2011, Mathia was Executive Director of the Association for Media Women in South Sudan (AMWISS) which she had helped co-found in 2008 alongside Veronica Lucy Gordon and others<ref name=":3" />
== Death == On 18 March 2011, Mathia died as a result of an accident when a motorcycle she was on was crushed by a lorry.<ref name=":0" />
== See also ==
* Anna Nimiriano * Veronica Lucy Gordon * Juba Post * Mass media in South Sudan
== References == <references />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathia, Apollonia}} Category:South Sudanese women journalists Category:South Sudanese journalists Category:South Sudanese activists Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Women newspaper editors Category:Road incident deaths in South Sudan Category:BBC people Category:2011 deaths